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Turns out Seattle Schools was listening when parents at Capitol Hill public school Stevens Elementary“strongly opposed” proposed attendance boundaries — the latest draft of the new attendance boundaries looks a lot like the old boundaries. You can see the updated map, below.

The new boundary plan will be presented to the School Board Wednesday afternoon in a session expected to be jam packed with public comment as neighborhood issues with the latest boundary proposal from across the city get worked out.

The same session will also include the board’s consideration of a proposal to provide district facilities to the Central District community groups that have taken over the Horace Mann school at 23rd and Cherry.

While the school district seems ready to meet the demands that Stevens attendance zone south of Madison be maintained, we haven’t yet heard back from officials about how maintaining the same borders will address overcrowding at the school.

In a letter sent to school families, members of the Stevens attendance committee said they “strongly oppose the proposed expansion of our boundaries to the north and east.” “These expansions would displace the south-of-Madison group of families and siblings that are already integral to our community and who bring Stevens much of its diversity, only to replace them with other families,” the letter read. “Our community does not welcome this solution, which does not appear to solve our capacity issue while negatively affecting diversity at Stevens.”

Oddly enough, the boundary has changed for Stevens, but the change isn’t highlighted on this map. The old Stevens boundary contained the area between Cherry and Union, west of 23rd– which is now assigned to Madrona. That block is colored gray, but should be yellow. There are quite a few kids in the area in question, maybe enough to fix Stevens for a year or two, but definitely a big help for getting Madrona better attendance numbers. It’s a long, hilly way from the west side of Cap Hill to Madrona, though.

J Seattle, It is very frustrating to spend on this time on correcting the misunderstandings that are resulting from your post. First what is confusing and misleading here is that, yes, there are no changes proposed for the 2014 school year, but going forward the last maps had all south of Union to Cherry assigned to Madrona. Another splice and dice of our neighborhood as back fill for any school in some part of Capitol Hill or Madorna or Madison Park that happens to need students. This would allow the District to precede with the construction planning for WS at TT Minor, leaving us in the lurch again. Just checking and getting all the facts straight in a way that doesn’t portray a false sense of what is going on would be much appreciated. The community groups here to some extent have appreciated the opportunity that the blogs give to share information. But, when the spin seems to becoming from a whole different direction with no outreach to the volunteers who have been working day in and day out on the issue, it just feels wrong. I still see no out reach to perhaps correct or add to the article. I am doing all the out reach. Joanna

Joanna — Most of your commentary seems to be about TT Minor but this article is focused on the changes — or lack of changes — to the Stevens boundaries. I don’t know what is next for the parents rallying for a different plan for TT Minor but we’ll continue to cover.

But you are presenting maps that mainly highlight the the changes for 2014 and did you really research where the lines are drawn? How about the south of E. Union Group? Lack of change is not true. And will these even stick? All I ask is that you check on some of it a bit more carefully. If that is your emphasis. Are you saying the someone at Stevens is thrilled with the proposal going forward? Certainly the parents here are not (some of them current Stevens parents.) Remember that the parents who have the biggest stake are those with young children and the community itself. The constant disruption to our families profoundly affects the entire cohesiveness of the community. Current students will be grandfathered into Stevens. The fact that some families at Stevens are thrilled might be a suitable story representing Capitol Hill. But, the emphasis of story that does not take into account the feelings of those whose neighborhood has been slice and diced between four different schools under the various proposals, including this one is not one to headline on CD News. So, Stevens will not change for 2014. What is the big deal about Stevens parents in particular? Even your comments do not indicate that the entire area south of E. Union to Cherry would be reassigned to

I need to add that to publish this on the same day as the school board meeting when people are trying to organize for that is really a disservice if you weren’t going to check a little more. I know you have my phone number. True, I had not checked the Capitol Hill blog last night and until it was published on CD News, I had not seen the article. I guess in that way knowing what was being said by J Seattle is appreciated.

I have to agree that the article is misleading. Although I do think that the Board heard some of our comments, their plan does not reflect this article. Here is what’s happening:
1. for 2013/14 Stevens Boundaries will be the same as 2012/13 – meaning they will extend to Cherry.
2. Some time (not determined) before 2020, the boundary will be shrunk to extend south to Union and the families between Union and Cherry will be re-assigned to Madrona

I appreciate celebrating some successes but agree that it’s misleading to do this without accurately covering the whole story.